


Somebunny to Love

by sarahcakes613



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Bad Puns, Developing Relationship, M/M, Pets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24800656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahcakes613/pseuds/sarahcakes613
Summary: Rafael invites Sonny to his apartment for the first time, and Sonny meets Rafael's roommate.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 20
Kudos: 64
Collections: Barisi Pride 2020





	Somebunny to Love

**Author's Note:**

> This covers Side A: Red and Side B: Found Family for the June challenge.
> 
> I have never in my life owned a bunny and in fact most of my experience with them is making sure my dog doesn't eat any of the wild native ones (100% success rate, don't worry). So, if this portrays atypical bun behaviour, that's on me.

They’ve been dating exclusively for a few months, and their dates still all end the same way – with a lingering kiss before Rafael leaves the restaurant/gallery/Sonny’s apartment and hails a cab to take him home.

And it’s not that Rafael is being old-fashioned, given how many of their evenings wind up spent on Sonny’s living room floor, too worked up to even get as far as the bedroom.

No, it’s definitely not a sense of Victorian propriety that keeps Rafael from inviting Sonny back to his place. The problem is, Sonny doesn’t know what Rafael’s reason is, and it’s starting to eat at him.

He knows Rafael’s mother has her own apartment, and he’s pretty sure there are no roommates either, so it’s not a shared living situation. He’s come up with and discarded a number of theories, each more absurd than the previous. The moonshine still and gambling den just aren’t practical possibilities, and Sonny’s been around enough grow ops to know he’d smell it on Rafael’s clothes.

“Just ask him,” is Mike’s advice during one late night phone call. “Maybe he’s actually living in a shoebox and doesn’t want you to know he can’t afford an apartment because he buys too many pocket squares.”

“I can’t just _ask_ him,” Sonny complains. “He’s probably got some completely normal reason and then I’ll just wind up looking like a tool.”

* * *

When Sonny can’t find one of his socks after an impromptu rendezvous in Barba’s office, he doesn’t think much of it. With some luck, the cleaners will think it’s Raf’s and leave it somewhere inobtrusive. He’s not thinking about it a few days later when Rafael turns to him as they’re leaving Forlini’s.

“Would you like to come back to my place tonight, Sonny?”

“I – really?” Sonny asks, cautiously.

“Yes, really. There’s someone I’d like you to meet. I hope you understand that I needed to wait before allowing you into my home, he’s very shy with strangers and I didn’t want him getting hurt if anything went wrong between us.”

Maybe Sonny was wrong about Rafael not having a roommate. He doesn’t know why a roommate would care if Sonny stopped showing up, though. Unless – .

“Do you have a kid?” Sonny blurts out as their car pulls up.

Rafael throws him a weird look as he climbs into the backseat. Sonny follows him in and greets the driver distractedly.

“Sonny, I know our relationship is new, but we’ve been colleagues for years. You think I’ve managed to hide an entire life as a parent all this time? Have you ever seen the way I hold Noah? You think that’s the confident carry of a man with children of his own?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, I guess not.”

Rafael snorts but doesn’t say anything else, and Sonny spends the rest of the car ride trying to work it out in his head. A shy roommate, someone Rafael cares about. Maybe a cousin from Cuba? He looks over at Barba. Is his boyfriend hiding an illegal immigrant, and Sonny is about to be brought into the loop?

The car stops in front of a nondescript brownstone and Rafael nudges Sonny out of the car. He leads Sonny up the front steps and into a short foyer with two doors and a steep set of stairs, and then down the hall to the further door.

As Rafael unlocks and pushes the door open, Sonny tenses, waiting to hear another person’s voice greeting them, but it is silent.

“You’ll want to keep your shoes on, I think. Sometimes he thinks it’s fun to gnaw on toes.” Rafael comments, slipping his jacket off and tossing it on the coat rack.

Sonny follows suit slowly, hanging up his coat and setting his briefcase down by the door.

“Come on, let’s get introductions out of the way and then I’ve got a nice new red I think you'll like.”

Sonny follows Rafael obediently into the living room, where he sees a fairly ordinary setup – couch, coffee table, media display cabinet – and one thing that stands out.

It’s a large piece of wooden furniture that looks a bit like a desk, except instead of drawers, the base is hollowed out and wrapped in chickenwire. Rafael walks over to kneel in front of it, cooing all the while.

“Come on buddy, there’s someone here who wants to meet you. You gotta come out of your hide though, okay?”

Sonny feels compelled to move quietly, so he tiptoes over to stand next to Rafael, and then kneels as directed. He looks into the hutch and there, tucked in behind a water bowl and – .

“Is that my sock?!” Sonny asks, his voice coming out at a higher pitch than intended.

Rafael hushes him, pushing the air down with his hand to reinforce his need for quiet.

“Yes, I brought it home so he’d have a chance to get used to your smell.”

Sonny looks askance at Rafael, who looks placidly back at him. Sonny returns his attention to the hutch, and the ginger-red rabbit within who is staring at him with an expression matching that of its owner. His nose is twitching furiously, and he takes a cautious hop out of his hide and stops at Sonny’s sock. He sniffs it, and then sniffs the air.

“Yeah, you recognize him now, don’t you, conejito?” Rafael murmurs as he reaches down to unlatch the door to the hutch. He reaches in and the rabbit hops into his arms, ears quivering as it nuzzles at Rafael’s shirt.

“You have a rabbit.” Sonny says, because he’s really very observant.

“Yes,” Rafael agrees. “His name is Leopold Bloom.”

“You have a rabbit named for your favourite character in The Producers.”

Rafael shrugs, adjusting the hold he has on his pet. “You named your sourdough starter after your favourite Golden Girl.”

Sonny points a finger warningly at the other man. “Rose is a gift, and you be careful what you say about her or you’re not getting any more of that pizza dough she makes.”

Rafael laughs as he sets Leopold down. He’s a Lionhead, with great tufts of reddish fur and big brown eyes. He hops towards Sonny, sniffing him, and then jumps back when Sonny moves to pet him.

“So all this time, this was your big secret?” Sonny asks, his hand held out patiently, waiting for Leopold to approach him again.

Rafael looks at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I dunno, you never seemed to want to invite me over, and I get it now, but up until today I didn’t even know you had a pet.”

Rafael’s mouth twists, like he’s trying not to laugh.

“First of all, you could have asked at any point and I would have been happy to tell you. Second of all, Leopold isn’t a pet. He’s family.” He nods towards a framed photo on top of the hutch.

Sonny peers at it. The photo was taken at some previous Christmas and it shows Rafael with his grandmother, who is holding Leopold up to her face. All three of them are wearing Santa hats.

“Abuelita chose his name.” Rafael says softly. “The home wouldn’t let her bring him, so he came to live with me.”

Sonny gazes at Rafael adoringly, and Rafael squirms under the intensity of his boyfriend’s sappy lovestricken look.

“Right, well, I imagine you want your sock back.” Rafael changes the subject and fishes the piece of fabric out from the hutch.

Sonny doesn’t ease up on the heart-eyes and Rafael rolls his own in response.

Leopold, meanwhile, has flopped onto his side on Sonny’s foot, and is making a weird hiccough-honking sound. Sonny looks alarmed and tries to gently shake Leopold off.

“Raf, I think your rabbit is trying to commit a sex crime with my shoe.”

Rafael laughs. “He’s purring, it just means he likes you. Trust me, if he gets horny, you’ll know.” He scoops Leopold up and puts him carefully back in the hutch, latching the door securely.

“What about his owner?” Sonny asks.

“Hmm?” Rafael responds, distracted.

Sonny leans over, his hand curling around Rafael’s wrist, and whispers into his ear. “If his owner is horny, will I know?”

“I don’t know why I find you so attractive, honestly.” Rafael gives Sonny a singularly unimpressed look, but it doesn’t phase Sonny, who is used to Rafael’s lack of appreciation for his moves.

“Hey, at least I didn’t go for the obvious.” Sonny argues. “I could have said we should make like Leopold and go fuck like bunnies.”

Rafael shakes his head. “Nope, get out, invitation rescinded.”

Sonny pouts, and Rafael reaches up, cupping the back of his head and bringing it down to kiss the pout off Sonny’s mouth.

“I’d make a joke about rabbits and hats,” Rafael says, “but I’m not planning on pulling out.”

Sonny groans into the kiss. “That’s way worse than mine.”

Rafael laughs as he guides Sonny backwards to his bedroom. “Maybe, but you’re not going to let it stop you.”

Sonny’s legs hit the bed and he falls back with a bounce.

“Fuck, I’m really not.” He says, reaching up for Rafael, who straddles him.

No rabbits are pulled out of hats that night, but by the time Sonny leaves Rafael’s apartment the next morning, they have definitely put pay to the expression of fucking like bunnies.

**Author's Note:**

> I very nearly called this Hashafan Hakatan and if literally a single person understands that reference please come talk to me we should be friends.


End file.
